“The Great Exchange”

We spend our lives trying to find acceptance among other people; but even more important than being accepted by other people is being accepted by God. That’s a problem. Why? Because God is perfect and you’re not.

And neither am I.

God lives in a perfect place called heaven, so God has a problem. How does he get imperfect people into a perfect place where he is perfect? (Because, obviously, if he allowed imperfect people in a perfect place it wouldn’t be perfect anymore.) God has to come up with a plan for imperfect people to be able to live in a perfect place.

God’s plan is what I call “The Great Exchange.”

The Bible says, “God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!” (2 Corinthians 5:21 LB).

I don’t know how to make it any clearer than to say it like this: You’re never going to be good enough to get into heaven because it’s perfect and you stopped being perfect a long time ago. It is Christ’s goodness in you that makes you acceptable. You’re not perfect, but he is. So God says, “We’ll do an exchange here. Jesus will take your sins and you get my goodness in your life.”